Trump whistleblower Alexander Vindman launches U.S. Senate run in Florida
Former National Security Council staffer and Army veteran Alexander Vindman — who testified against Donald Trump ahead his first impeachment in 2019 — is joining the Democratic race for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat.
The seat was previously held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to fill the vacancy last year. Vindman’s entrance could bring more national attention and funds into a race that’s a long shot for Democrats.
Vindman’s campaign launch video, released Tuesday, focuses on Trump, calling Moody a “yes vote” for the president. It also includes footage of Saturday’s shooting of Minnesota intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers.
“This president unleashed a reign of terror and retribution not just against me and my family, but against all of us,” Vindman says in the video. “Today our country is in chaos, thug militias attacking citizens.”
He’s the latest politician to inject Pretti’s killing into Florida politics, after Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly gave an impassioned speech to the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida: “Minnesota matters in the state of Florida.”
Vindman also criticized Moody’s stock trades, corruption in Washington and billionaires profiting from the Trump administration in his campaign advertisement. He touts his experience as a 21-year Army veteran and lieutenant colonel. He is also the former director for European Affairs on the National Security Council.
He’ll face a Democratic primary against Jacksonville state Rep. Angie Nixon; former Brevard County School Board Member Jennifer Jenkins; and former Google philanthropy head Hector Mujica, from Broward County.
Moody does not have any high-profile challengers on the GOP side, and whoever wins the Democratic primary have a difficult path to victory with Democrats’ growing voter registration disadvantage and inability to win a statewide race in the past seven years.
But Vindman’s campaign could bring more national attention and much-needed money for any Democrat hoping to mount a serious challenge to Moody. His brother is a sitting congressman for Virginia and raised the third-highest sum of anyone in the House in his 2024 race, after only Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to FEC reports.
Vindman has been eyeing the race for months. He told CBS News Miami last spring he was thinking about a Senate run, and addressed a crowd of anti-Trump protestors at the No Kings rally in Bayfront Park last fall saying politicians backing Trump’s agenda “will be swept away — one by one — in every election to come.”
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